Dandenong Thunder Versus Port Melbourne

The U14s kicked off around 12.20PM against a fairly undermanned Port Melbourne team coached by a friend of mine. Today Port Melbourne had some players missing and were in a weakened state, while we were returning from Canberra after an arduous week.
We started off in okay fashion moving the ball forward but there was a real lack of talk in defense and midfield. This was not helping our situation. Finally we played a ball through a gap from Agim and Ray ran on to it and kept his front position all the way to the goal and he calmly put it past the keeper to register our first! It was great to see Ray finally place the ball into the goal.
The opponents had a few real chances and Lou kept us in the game with two fine saves. Our defense was a little out of shape and obviously missing Shannon, but Liron was playing really well and AJ was playing his role as a holding mid in excellent fashion. Tom Rotin was really working hard and he is getting better each week, He can now swing between the 3/4 position and the 6/10 position quite seamlessly.
Tyson, Oscar and Tom Rotin scored our last three goals in the second half but - and it is my job to be honest - apart from the three scores there was little to be enthused about. We keep making too many mistakes from skill errors, and we don't communicate. There are players that will not run or are tired after 5 minutes because they are unfit, and there are players who just don't follow simple instructions and consequently all these factors debilitate team structure. It makes us look ragged and less intense!
We ended up winning 4-0 but we are not playing anywhere near where we should be. 2015 is going to be a reality check for players unfortunately. Some players are being found wanting against decent opposition and if we don't find commitment and focus to follow coach instructions then sadly we will not improve. I have to ask the question - how bad does each player want to improve? Are they doing extra to catch up? I would say nearly every player needs to do strength and conditioning and speed training but I cant even get commitment for that! We will need to have a parents meeting because I am not going to just go through a season in mediocrity! I will get Barry to organise!
Our best players yesterday were Lou, AJ, Tom Rotin and Liron!
The under 18s had also returned from a bruising week in Canberra but had learned a lot too. I was not sure how many players would lob up yesterday but I knew we were missing Tom F, Anthony S, Alex K, Luke D, Leigh K and Seb G, So with 14 in the squad including a very doubtful Wahed, we took on Port Melbourne who had just recently won their first game of the season against Box Hill in a very tight encounter.

We started off strongly and attacked hard - with guys in new positions. We had some good opportunities but Port Melbourne played really well clearing the ball with precision and trying to attack. But as the game wore on they got a little tired and our first goal came from the enigmatic Nick F (above) with a great header! We all love Nick because he works so hard and it is always fantastic to see him in the box on corners and frees.George S and Charlie were super in the first half, working so hard and eventually George crossed a ball into Elia who put in an excellent shot across the keeper.

We shot time and time again while our defense was quite resolute with Dhruv doing a wonderful job alongside Nick, Kane and Adam. In fact that was probably the difference today - we shut down many of their attacks and they were forced to shoot from far out which suits our Lewis down to a tee. He is very hard to beat from a distance.

Nanton was playing very well but Michael seemed to be struggling - and he was! After 15 minutes he had to come off - the workload from the Canberra trip was really starting to show, so Connor went into the middle. Straight away we started to win all the aerial battles with Connor's strength and speed becoming a big factor (below.) We were struggling in the 10/9 relationship but with our wingers clearly winning their positions we were able to compensate.

The half came and we pretty much kept it as it was, even though some of the boys were starting to fatigue. However, Port Melbourne were also tiring rapidly because of the pace that we move the ball. This year it seems that the second half becomes a battle of 'who can last' longer.We got another ten minutes out of Elia and made the switch with Nate into 10 and Andre to right back, Adam came into centre-back to work alongside Dhruv and we put Nick into his familiar territory at 9. Instantly he scored another header which followed a goal from a great  bit of work from George and Nanton, who was flashing around and creating loads of chances for our attackers..

It was 5-0 when Connor shot a goal across the keeper into the bottom corner and the steam tended to go out of the game with 25 minutes left. This was probably a big negative. We have NOT learned to be relentless. We. instead, lost intensity because we stopped talking and just went through the motions. At times, our defense seemed uninterested and we started to make poor passes and stopped playing with any urgency. This lackadaisical effort allowed the opponents to score a goal - the third goal we have conceded unnecessarily this season. We need to adjust this weakness. Whether it was general fatigue or just taking it mentally easy because we were 6 goals up - (exactly the same score last week against SWE when we conceded) - whatever the reason we need to FIX it. Maybe the young bodies have not adjusted to the 90 minute games as we seem to falter in last 20 minutes.
I did however get 90 minutes of intensity from 3 players yesterday - Charlie, Nick and George - who combined and kept going at it  until we scored again to make it 7-1. With a bit more team oriented play we may have scored 2 more but we will address that.
A big two weeks now follows!
We play Heidelberg who are undefeated in both U14 and U18. They will be very, very hard to beat. Then we follow next week's game with a double Header - against Bulleen and South Melbourne. That will be a very difficult weekend!